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September in your garden

Helen Penrose checks off the key jobs coming up in your garden

In your gardenSeptember can bring some glorious days – although after the summer we’ve had you wouldn’t want to take anything for granted. But it isn’t summer any more, whatever the weather; a nip in the air bodes ill for tender plants, and the nights are unquestionably drawing in. Make the most of any good days – but watch the forecasts!

Plan crop rotation

Sowing and planting

• Sow hardy varieties of lettuce, winter radishes, and hardy salads like corn salad, landcress, winter purslane and rocket, preferably under a cloche or cold frame.

• There is still time to sow spinach, chard, chicories and oriental greens.

• Sow sets of overwintering (‘Japanese’) onions this month. If you prefer to grow them from seed, you can still sow it early in September.

• You can plant early varieties of autumn garlic this month, although they will do just as well from an October planting.

• More in the magazine

Crop care

• Stake tall brassicas before the autumn gales strike.

• Watch out for cabbage white caterpillars; they are still on the march this month, and newly transplanted winter brassicas don’t have many leaves to spare.

• Pot up herbs like chives and parsley for window-sill cropping through the winter. Put the pots into a cold frame or unheated greenhouse for now.

• Cut down asparagus ferns once
they start to turn brown.

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September fruit

September fruit
= Pick apples and pears as soon as they are ripe, especially if gales are forecast – there’s a limit to how many windfalls you can use. Store sound apples and pears in a single layer. The ideal temperature is 5C, so use the coldest room in the house, or a frost-free outbuilding. See pages 6-10.

= Complete summer pruning of apple trees (see pages 46-47).

= Check tree stakes, ties and grease bands and replace them as necessary.

= Put cloches over late-fruiting strawberries to keep them cropping for longer.

= Pick blackberries and autumn-fruiting raspberries
as they ripen – and make the most of the wild blackberry crop before the first frosts get the fruit.

= Cut out the spent canes on blackberries and
hybrid berries once the fruit has finished, and tie
in the best of the new canes to produce next
year’s crop. Prune out any that are stunted or surplus to requirements.

= Once your soft fruit has finished cropping, take down any temporary netting so that birds can
get in to clear up lurking pests.

= Take cuttings from currants and gooseberries.
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